Free SAN software?

[Proxy]

Hey guys I was looking for a free or open version of SAN software. I have an old Dell PowerEdge 2850 that has a lot of disk space. I want to turn it into a SAN for a test virtual infrastructure I am building. Thanks!

 

[Silenus]

Some of the popular ZFS based ones used around are:
Solaris Express 11 + NappIt gui
Open Indiana + NappIt
Nexenta Core + NappIt
Nexenta Community Edition with its own GUI (free up to 18TB)

You will find any of these highly recommended here and plenty of people with experience using them.

 

[danman]

Are you just looking for iSCSI Target software?

 

[ChrisBenn]

Open Indiana / SE11 will act as an iSCSI, FCoE, or Fiber Channel target via COMSTAR.

 

[Proxy]

Are you just looking for iSCSI Target software?

Yes.

 

[Stanza33]

Dump iSCSI and just go with NFS....

Much easy and there is no speed difference.

SolarisExpress 11 and share it out via NFS...

 

[BENN0]

Openfiler.

 

[Stanza33]

Setting Up an OpenSolaris Storage Server in 10 Minutes or Less

http://developers.sun.com/openstorage/articles/opensolaris_storage_server.html

 

[danman]

The Microsoft iSCSI target is free and Starwind is also free for Windows.

 

[tormentum]

Another option I'm starting to warm to is FreeNAS (www.freenas.org). It has native support for ZFS, and good hardware support, as well as a good web interface.

 

[Red Falcon]

Another option I'm starting to warm to is FreeNAS (www.freenas.org). It has native support for ZFS, and good hardware support, as well as a good web interface.

imo, it is really only good for temporary or low-end storage setups.

The ZFS version is beyond obsolete compared to other Solaris distros and is very unstable. The whole point of ZFS is stability and reliability.

The hardware support is decent and the web interface is great, making it good for a quick setup and temp storage.

For long-term and reliability, I would stay away from it though.

 

[nitrobass24]

@Proxy

What OS does it currently have? If you have 08R2 download MS iSCSI
Are you familiar with Solaris/Linux based systems? If you are, or you are feeling adventurous you can try Solaris/ZFS/Napp-it. If not just stick to windows and install a free iSCSI target software. Like starwind or Open-E

 

[Olga-SAN]

Nor single storage node protocol itself does not matter at all.

Dump iSCSI and just go with NFS....

Much easy and there is no speed difference.

SolarisExpress 11 and share it out via NFS...

 

[Olga-SAN]

+1 for StarWind (if windows is option of choice) as it has dedupe and very effective caching. Other options are paid and have no sense for single-node config (HA, replication etc).

+1 for OpenIndiana

freenas & openfiles suck. Both.

The Microsoft iSCSI target is free and Starwind is also free for Windows.

 

[davros123]

Another option I'm starting to warm to is FreeNAS (www.freenas.org). It has native support for ZFS, and good hardware support, as well as a good web interface.

ummm...I think you had better take another look then.